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Germany at the Pivot

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Germany at the Pivot Three powerful factors military dy l Kenne security, trade opportunities, and Pau by Ostpolitik—are shaping West German tos attitudes toward the Soviet bloc. —Pho Germany at the Pivot BY VINCENT P. GRIMES N ONE critical issue after an- tional approach are West German O other—arms control, East- economic and military power within West trade, modernization of NATO and the German perception NATO nuclear weapons, policy to- that a historic opportunity exists to ward eastern Europe—West Ger- ease national problems. many is now exerting a major and The rise of a powerhouse econo- perhaps decisive influence. my in the Federal Republic, far from The nation of 61,000,000 seems concentrating German attention on increasingly ready to place itself at internal affairs, has fed German odds with key allies on the basic readiness to play a more prominent security issue of how to respond to international role. Soviet power. Bonn consistently After World War II, Germany lay outpaces both the US and Britain in destroyed, and the lines of occupa- supporting Soviet leader Mikhail tion became the frontiers of a divid- Gorbachev and in calling for West- ed Europe. From this prostrate con- ern military concessions. dition, the West German state has The West German Air Force's first-rate equipment includes 165 Tornado fighter/ Bonn's actions reflect a desire for risen to become a worldwide indus- ground-attack aircraft. This Tornado and a larger role in eastern Europe, a trial giant and the dominant eco- crew recently visited Andrews AFB, Md., region where the Kremlin faces vast nomic force on the Continent. as part of a West German and Rockwell problems and where German influ- Its Gross National Product now Corp. joint effort to develop the Tornado as the next-generation US Wild Weasel ence has long been a sensitive issue. exceeds $1 trillion and continues to aircraft. Even talk of a reunified Germany is expand. West Germany, once a re- back in style. cipient of US aid, now provides its The Federal Republic, in short, is own assistance to some allies. moving toward a leading role on fun- Within NATO's military assis- damental issues going to the heart of tance program, West Germany has East-West rivalries. US leadership been supporting moves by Greece, in NATO, reform in eastern Europe, Turkey, and Portugal to modernize and the future of the German nation their forces. Included are funds for are sure to be affected. Hellenic Army and Air Force pro- What is kindling the new asser- grams, Turkish aircraft, and Por- tiveness in West Germany's interna- tuguese Type-209 submarines. 48 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 1989 At the heart of the Bundeswehr is its large force of some 5,100 main battle tanks. Of these, 1,800 are of the Leopard II type. The older Leopard I numbers some 2,400. There are also 900 or so older US- made M48 tanks. While Germany's tank force is dwarfed by Soviet armor holdings, it is nevertheless larger than that used by the German Army to over- whelm France in 1940 and invade Russia in 1941. The Bundeswehr is facing some sharp peacetime challenges, the greatest of which is a demographic downturn in West Germany. With the pool of draft-age men shrinking, Bonn is experiencing growing diffi- culties finding servicemen in suffi- cient numbers. The Army also has problems retaining second-term NCOs. West Germany's Territorial Army, The multinational European Fighter Aircraft program will give the Luftwaffe a new primary combat aircraft in the late 1990s. The twin-engine, single-seat EFA will be very organized into five divisions, is in- agile and will boast advanced avionics. West Germany plans to buy 250 EFAs in the tended for rear-area duties such as late 1990s, along with other weapon systems modernizations. home defense, base-area security, and reserve training. Also under the West Germany's military achieve- Phantom reconnaissance aircraft, Territorial Army command are Ger- ment has been less spectacular but and 175 older and soon-to-be- man battalions assigned to a joint equally critical to its emergence as a replaced AlphaJet fighter/ground- Franco-German brigade, based at power in European affairs. Today, attack planes. The swingwing Tor- BOblingen, which falls outside the highly professional German nado is the backbone of the German NATO supervision. force of 485,000 active servicemen fighter/bomber force. Germany's Navy, the Bundes- and 800,000 reservists is viewed as a On land, West Germany boasts marine, has only 38,500 officers and key to NATO conventional defense the largest standing army in western sailors, including 6,800 naval avi- on the Continent. Europe, one numerically larger ators. Even so, efforts over the past This is true despite restrictions than US Army forces in Europe and two decades to increase German imposed on West German military with more main battle tanks. seapower have been largely suc- power. Under provisions of the Paris West Germany's Army, or Bun- cessful. The fleet, deploying 150 agreements of 1954, which cleared deswehr, today has 345,000 troops, ships in 1970, now operates some the way for West German rearma- 170,000 of them conscripts serving 180 vessels. The total includes ment, all forces except a Territorial active-duty terms of eighteen months. twenty-four diesel submarines and Army are under direct command of Of the total, about 266,000 are as- eighteen surface combatants. Deliv- NATO's Supreme Allied Command- signed to the Field Army committed ery of the last of eight Bremen-class er, Europe. German law bans pro- to NATO defense, 49,000 to the Ter- frigates will soon be complete. duction of nuclear, biological, or ritorial Army, and the balance to These 3,750-ton ships are armed chemical arms. various support units and headquar- with Harpoon antiship missiles and ters. In addition, there are 710,000 NATO Sea Sparrows. German Force Lineup Army reservists. The West German Air Force, The Bundeswehr, until recently, Modest Modernization Plans 109,000 strong, comprises ten wings was organized into twelve divisions: The services are due to benefit of fighter/ground-attack aircraft, ten mechanized, one airborne, and from modest modernization pro- two wings of air defense fighters, one mountain. Long-term prob- grams. The most conspicuous, the and two wings of reconnaissance lems, however, have forced the ser- multinational European Fighter Air- aircraft. The Luftwaffe possesses vice to reorganize. This reorganiza- craft (EFA) program, will provide excellent personnel. tion, carried out under a plan known the Luftwaffe with a new primary In addition, much of its equip- as "Force Structure 2000," calls for combat aircraft in the late 1990s. ment is viewed as first-rate. In- a force of ten mechanized and two The EFA is to be a twin-engine, cluded in the German inventory are airmobile divisions, plus another single-seat design with a delta wing 165 relatively new Tornado fighter/ thirteen brigades of the airmobile, and canard configuration, making it ground-attack aircraft, 160 F-4 lift infantry, and mechanized infan- very agile, and with advanced avi- Phantom interceptor and fighter/ try type. The new setup will require onics. Luftwaffe plans call for buy- ground-attack aircraft, sixty RF-4 fewer active-duty troops. ing 250 EFAs. Also on tap are sixty 50 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 1989 additional multipurpose Tornado trade ideas almost without reserva- jor politicians alike are preoccupied fighters and up to 3,000 Advanced tion. with the need to reduce this threat Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles. to German security. Gorbachev is Though it has run into develop- Three Motivations widely viewed as the best chance ment problems, the new PAH-2 at- Three factors account for mount- for peace and worthy of strong tack helicopter is expected to in- ing West German insistence on Western support. crease German Army capabilities striking an independent pose on this Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich substantially in the 1990s. This air- critical East-West issue. Genscher has maintained that the craft is being developed jointly with The first is a military security West must move swiftly to help France at a cost to West Germany of problem like none other. Gen. Gorbachev in his avowed effort to $4.5 billion. The Bundeswehr will Eberhard Eimler, when he was change Soviet society. In June, get 200 of the PAH-2s, which are Chief of Staff of Germany's Air West Germany and the Soviet slated to perform many of the same Force, described the situation viv- Union pledged in an East-West doc- tasks that the US Army's new LHX idly: ument to strive for disarmament will perform. "Two-thirds of all Soviet forces and intensify cooperation. Signed Four ships of a new, all-German are stationed in Central Europe or by Gorbachev and West German frigate class are about to be ordered in the western part of the USSR. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the state- at a cost of $1.5 billion. Twelve There is no other part of the globe ment commits their nations to seek Type-206-class subs are being mod- where so many military bases, "a peaceful European order or a ernized to operate in high-threat wa- troops, weapon systems, and nucle- common European home." ters. These will be equipped with ar warheads are concentrated as at This preoccupation with the the Krupp-Atlas SLW-83 combat in- this line dividing the two power promise of peace held out by Gor- formation system, built around an blocs. The Federal Republic of Ger- bachev accounts, in part, for luke- upgraded DBQS-21D sonar, and the many extends from south to north warm German support for moderni- DM2A3 antiship, antisubmarine tor- over 625 miles,.
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